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On this week's Game Scoop! we're discussing games we never got around to playing and know we'll probably never actually go back and play. This conversation originally occurred on Game Scoop! Episode 299.

The original Half-Life was a truly ground-breaking title. So much of what we take for granted in current games, specifically first person shooters and action games, can be traced back to this critically acclaimed effort by Valve Software. Half-Life was notable on a number of fronts (for simplicity I have limited that number to four, the rule of three be damned): The immersive and (then novel) presentation of story through scripted events...

With an auspicious beginning at the Independent Games Festival Student Showcase in 2006, a small game -- named Narbacular Drop -- from a group of DigiPen students went on to inspire an industry darling. Several oft-quoted lines of dialog and millions of "The cake is a lie" jokes later, Portal was a resounding critical success when it launched inside The Orange Box, also home to Half-Life 2, its two follow-ups, and Team Fortress 2.

You knew about the acclaim, but you may not have known that it has moved approximately four million copies in the past four years. What's really surprising, however, is that Valve reached that sales mark without including the numbers for Steam -- numbers that would muddle the accuracy of that four million in terms of actual sales, given that Valve has offered the game free through Steam at various times.

It's also unclear whether that number includes individual copies of Portal sold at retail, the Xbox Live Arcade release (Portal: Still Alive), or any other sales channels. We've reached out to Valve for clarity on the total sales of Portal, but for now, four million is nothing to sneeze at -- especially considering the game's humble origins.

"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far ... is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day? I guess we both know that isn't going to happen."

All of the radio locations in Portal Version 2, courtesy turinpt2.

#ps3 Developer Valve hasn't announced a PlayStation 3 version of upcoming first-person puzzle game Portal 2—only Xbox 360, PC and Mac versions are official—but one magazine seems to think its coming, naming it among its "must-play PS3 games." More »

#syndicated Jason McIntosh, producer of television show The Gameshelf and writer of the blog of the same name, explores the similarities between the video game and comic book markets of the past and present. Here, his second entry on the subject. More »

Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek reassures Sony fans.

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